Free Radicals
by next
Summary: It was just one little thing, but it could be asked of you. Hodgins POV. If you feel like reading my ramblings, please review. Mainly written for my own benefit.


**_A/N: So, I've got exams on at the moment. Next one is my Chemistry... College tells me I'm an auditory learner and would revise best if I put things into stories. I have taken this to the extreme and written a whole chapter. If there is any mistake in the science, please let me know, although I am only a sixth form level student (high school for Americans). In this story, Hodgins and Angela are still a couple. Hodgin's POV. I own nothing to do with Bones. Rated T for mild language and vague suggestive content. Better safe than sorry I suppose. This was mainly written for my own benefit._**

I climbed up the platform and spoke directly to Dr. Brennan.

"So, the victim had large amounts of 1-chloropropene on their clothes along with other organic substances. I'm planning on tracing any impurities to narrow down the use of these halogenoalkanes but it could take-"

"Didn't Booth say the vic's husband worked in the R&D department of a chemical manufacturer?" Cam butted in before I could finish my sentence.

"The chemicals developed in the lab would contain very minute amounts of impurities. I need to isolate them and-"

"Surely you could go and check the lab to see if they have anything that could be used in the production of the chemicals that lab manufactures? Just compare the chemicals?"

"Yes, of course Dr. Saroyan, but I still need to isolate the impurit-"

"It's just that the son is missing and we need anything that can help us identify the killer, that could lead us straight to the kid,"

"I _know_, Dr. Saroyan, but the production of these halogenoalkanes could have occurred in numerous ways."

"Which ways?"

"Well there are a few mechanisms, nucleophilic substitution, electrophilic addition and-" I coughed, "free radical substitution." I mumbled the last part, hoping she couldn't hear me.

"Free radical substitution occurs when chlorine is exposed to UV radiation, am I correct Dr. Hodgins?" Dr. Brennan spoke for the first time.

"Yes, but-"

"The vic's husband was working on refining the absorption of UV radiation by gases," Brennan continued, thinking aloud. "Is it possible the 1-chloropropene and other halogenoalkanes found on the clothing were produced by free radical substitution?"

"Er," I looked at Brennan and Cam. "Oh, the mass spec.'s done. Let me get back to you." I hurried off, leaving a confused pair of doctors behind me.

"What's his problem?" I heard Angela say, before I rounded the corner and took off down the corridor. My problem was that for all the money and love in the world, I could not tell you anything about free radical substitution. I rested against the wall and closed my eyes, remembering the last time I had had to think about it.

* * *

I closed my eyes and sighed. Rubbed my temples.

_Why can't I get this?_

I was frustrated and tired; unusually emotional. My head hurt, my eyes were strained. I was sick of hunching over. My hand was cramping and ink was smeared over the page, dotted on my palm and fingers. Smiley faces on the end of my extremities now seemed to mock my inability to understand, to process; to be able to get the damn question right!

I glanced at the clock. Glowing red: 01:57. Tomorrow morning was my Organic Chemistry final. My last examination of my undergraduate career-hopefully. My brain felt like putty. I stared at the paper in front of me, willing my brain to get fired up. If a brain was a muscle, mine was surely a humming mass of finely tuned fibres. I had used it that much in the past four years that it should be on a par with an Olympic hurdler suspected of taking steroids.

But _free radical substitution_ should be like the junior county 110m hurdles for my Olympian muscle brain in comparison to the shit we've been doing recently. I mean, when you are studying fullerenes and nanotechnology, high school level chemistry kind of pales in comparison.

So why can't I do it? I looked at the clock again and sighed. Decided to give up. I would pray that it didn't come up on the exam. I had prided myself on getting top marks in almost every exam going, from freshman to senior year. Now, it was all down to fate. I sighed again, before climbing into bed.

_Initiation, propagation and termination. UV light breaks down chlorine and bromine to create free radicals. They react to create halogenoalkanes. Free radicals are highly reactive have one unpaired electron. _

I fell to sleep thinking of electrons and chlorine, unable to get my head around the mechanism that I thought would be unimportant in my career.

* * *

I sighed and walked back to the lab a half hour later. Brennan was still on the platform with Cam and Booth had joined them.

"...and Hodgins said there was trace chemicals on the vic's clothing that could have come from the husband's lab, or been produced there, possibly when she was murdered-oh, hello Dr. Hodgins," Brennan interrupted herself to greet me. "Did you find out if the chemicals were formed by free radical substitution?"

"Hey, free radical substitution, I remember that!" Booth cut in before I could open my mouth. "Yeah, initiation, propagation and termination. Hey, I know this! You need UV light to do that though. Plus, it only really occurs effectively in a closed system. It's actually a pretty unreliable way to make those chemicals, 'cause they're all crazy reactive and will react with whatever is there. You can't control it."

Brennan and Cam's mouths had dropped open and they were looking at Booth as if he had sprouted a second head. I looked at the guy and he grinned, revelling in their disbelief. I thought I had better go along with it, what he had said sounded about right.

"Yeah, Booth's right. So nope, those chemicals were probably not produced with the UV radiation the husband was working with," I said. I patted Booth on the back and said, "Well done man, where did you learn that?"

"What, are you serious? High school chemistry bud, it's easy as pie. Can't believe you didn't pick up on it," he said, nudged Brennan.

Brennan shook her head and said, "I'm impressed Booth."

"Yeah, well the main reason I remember it so well is that I had this hot senior as my chemistry tutor. Every time I got something right she would reward me with kisses." Booth grinned again, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"That sounds like an effective method of learning, if you can remember it 15 years in the future," Brennan replied.

"Yeah, I owe that girl a _lot,"_ Booth said, nudging me suggestively. "Now c'mon Bones, we'll go question the husband again anyway, find out why she had chemicals on her even though he swore blind he hadn't seen her for two days before he reported her missing," Booth grabbed Brennan's arm and walked off the platform with her.

I watched them go before turning to Angela and catching her eye. _That sounds like a really effective way of learning,_ I thought, before walking over to her.

"Angela, could you do me a favour...?"

**_A/N: I hope you enjoyed it and weren't too alienated by the science. I think this has helped me a little bit, so I might try it with my other subjects, although I don't see how I can fit Mussolini's economic and foreign policies into a Bones setting. Please review._**

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